Too Much Chocolate Cake

This is my sister Darcie's favorite cake-- for taste and ease of preparation. With twin babies, quick and easy is a good thing! She says it tastes best right out of the fridge. I found this recipe many years ago on all recipes. It can be dusted with a bit of confectioners sugar or as I prefer, with a quick chocolate glaze.


1 box of Devil's Food cake mix
1 large pkg instant chocolate pudding mix
1 C sour cream
1 C vegetable or canola oil
4 eggs
1/2 C warm water
2 C semi-sweet mini chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix all the above ingredients together except the chocolate chips. When well mixed, fold in the chocolate chips. The mini chips are nice because they don't sink to the bottom of the batter, but regular size ones are fine. Pour batter into a well greased 12 cup bundt pan.

Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until top springs back and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool cake in pan for a few hours before inverting onto a plate.

Ganache:

Use equal amount of whipping cream and chopped semi-sweet chocolate.
Carefully bring 8oz of whipping cream to a boil. Remove from the stove and pour over 8oz of chocolate chips or chopped chocolate pieces. Stir until melted and smooth. Pour and drizzle over the cooled cake.

Nana's Butter Tarts

In memory of the best Nana ever

I am sharing her recipe for Butter Tarts.

Over the years I've collected quite a few of her recipes

and this gem was tucked away in a 4 page letter that she

wrote me a long time ago.

Nana's Butter Tarts:

3 c. brown sugar

5 eggs

1 c. butter, softened

2 t. vanilla

4 T. heavy whipping cream
2 c. raisins (optional)

1 c. pecans or walnuts (also optional)

Any good pastry pie crust recipe (I used the Krusteaz's brand that comes in the box)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Cream the butter, sugar and eggs well. Add whipping cream and vanilla, mix thoroughly. Pour into tart shells being careful not to fill more than 1/2 way full. I haven't had any luck finding premade tart shells and began by using premade, pre-rolled out pie crust. This time around I used a Krusteaz brand box pie crust mix where you simply add water and stir. It was great! The second batch of butter tarts was even more incredible because they had a nice thick crust, just like I remember.

Bake for 20-25 mins, watching carefully so they don't burn. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Left over filling can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Bon Appetit!